Friday Research Wrap, 9/25/2015

Planned viewing of TV programs during primetime has reached a new high, while program switching is at a new low, reports GfK in a recent study. While watching a program on a TV network remains the most common use of a TV set during primetime, more viewers are watching recorded programs and streaming video. So what about engagement across those viewing methods?

Interestingly, the survey of consumers aged 13-64 finds that the proportion of primetime TV viewing segments that includes another activity is consistent across traditional linear TV (69%), DVR recordings (70%) and online streaming through a TV (71%). The most common activities performed during primetime TV including talking with others in person or on a phone and using the internet (offering a good reason why a recent study [pdf] correlates TV advertising with web traffic spikes).

As for TV advertising, the GfK report breaks out two advertising attitudes (of 9 measured) that have increased between 2004 and 2015:

“Companies with primetime ads have a greater commitment to quality” (40% in 2015 versus 27% in 2004); and

“Primetime ads are better at providing information that helps me decide what to buy” (37% and 28%, respectively).

The following is a brief list of other intriguing data points culled from recently-released research.

Sticking with TV, a recent report from Flurry that was widely covered in the press claims that mobile apps have surpassed TV viewing in daily average time spent in the US. However, most coverage fails to note that the TV viewing figures cited in Flurry’s report are from the US Department of Labor, and indicate a daily average of 198 minutes in Q2 2015. More commonly-used TV viewing figures – from Nielsen – however, show that daily TV viewing time (of traditional TV only) is closer to 5 hours. That’s about 1.5 times the amount cited in the Flurry report, and would make TV viewing engagement significantly higher than mobile app use.

Moving on to ad spending, and the US and global forecasts are being downgraded. In fact, ZenithOptimedia (see here), Carat (here) and Warc (here) are all revising down their ad spending forecasts. Meanwhile, ZenithOptimedia sees mobile ad spend overtaking newspaper ad spend globally next year; note that eMarketer projects that mobile ad spend in the US will surpass all of print this year.

Here’s a nice segue: ad industry execs are suffering from low morale! Specifically, 37% of the 211 ad execs in the US surveyed by Campaign US rated morale at their company as low or dangerously low, outnumbering the 29% who felt it was good or very good. The mood appears to be worsening, with management being the biggest culprit. Those with low morale are more likely to be seeking a new position, while those with the highest salaries are least likely to rate their company’s morale as being low (fancy that!).

Switching gears, a recent study from OtherLevels that the frequency, content, targeting and utility of mobile messages can affect engagement and lift in response to retail mobile marketing campaigns. A recent study [pdf] of shoppers in North America from Cognizant found that 54% “welcome” retailer alerts reminding them of an offer or loyalty reward based on their current location. But survey results from Genesys offer a different viewpoint, suggesting that consumers find these in-store alerts (such as from beacons) to be annoying.

Moving on to email marketing, IBM Silverpop recently released a benchmark study [download page] examining engagement rates across industries. The report notes that transactional messages continue to perform better than broadcast emails. Other email engagement data is available here.

A study from Blue Nile Research suggests that position 2 in search results could generate more clicks than position 1 if the former is a rich media enhanced result and the latter simply a text result. Separately in search, a report from Stone Temple Consulting finds that Wikipedia’s visibility in Google search results is declining, though its prevalence still exceeds Google’s own properties, particularly in commercial queries.

Finally, research is finding enthusiasm for Jet.com, Amazon’s would-be rival. Data from Channel Advisor shows that since its launch, Jet.com has a 23% repeat buyer rate. Comparable rates during the time period analyzed were lower for eBay (17%) and Amazon (11%). Meanwhile, survey results from Prosper Insights & Analytics indicate that while awareness of Jet.com is fairly low (18.6% of adults), the 7.7% of shoppers who had visited or made a purchase at Jet.com were predominantly youth, with almost 6 in 10 under the age of 35.